


Take Me Home

by cricket_aria



Category: Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
Genre: F/F, Harley's still being hunted, Helena is not great at reading people, Homesickness, Patrolling, Post-Canon, Trying to do good by the kid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:21:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25123831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cricket_aria/pseuds/cricket_aria
Summary: Helena's up at night a little bit homesick, and Harley's out at night a little worried about how to get the kid a better at defending herself in a way that wouldn't make her snap. They might be able to help each other out with those problems.
Relationships: Helena Bertinelli/Harleen Quinzel
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28
Collections: Little Black Dress Exchange 2020





	Take Me Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LMD18](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LMD18/gifts).



Helena was patrolling.

At least, that was what she would have said if anyone had stopped her to ask what she was doing as she prowled her way through the streets. It wasn't even a lie, really, not when she'd stopped to take down a variety of the muggers, carjackers, and other evildoers who haunted Gotham's streets. It was the type of thing she was supposed to do, now that she was a member of a crime-fighting squad.

It was a good excuse for her to be out, but the truth was that she was just sleepless and lonely, and being out on the hunt was at least better than staring at the ceiling back in the room she rented. Gotham was somehow both too loud and too quiet at once. The noise of traffic at all hours was something she'd become unused to over the years. On the other hand, she'd always been able to hear the quieter sounds of Paolo and Salvatore snoring and shifting in their sleep through the thin walls of her bedroom and they were surprisingly strongly missed now that she didn't have the focus of her revenge to keep her from thinking about it. Those men had raised her for even longer than her real family had, but they lived so far off the grid that she had no way of contacting them without going home to Italy or hoping a letter didn't get lost on its way across the sea. 

Not unless she wanted to dip a toe back into the underworld to hire them for a job anyway, and they'd probably have her hide for dragging them to America on a wild goose chase just because she wanted to play catch-up.

The whole time she'd lived with them she'd understood their reasoning; they were hired killers, they didn't need phones that could be tapped or computers to be hacked. What communication they had outside the small village where they raised her was always five steps removed from the source, job information being moved from drop zone to drop zone by people who never saw each other's faces until it finally reached the spot where they would collect it. Assassins didn't get to be old unless they were incredibly careful to keep themselves hidden away from the world, and Salvatore was one of the oldest she knew of. 

Still, Helena would have thought that when you sent your adopted daughter out on a murder quest you might bend the rules a little and get your hands on a few satellite phones so she could call home. Without that she wandered the streets to distract herself from the homesickness, playing the hero until she wore herself out enough to fall asleep.

Until she was distracted by a chirpy voice behind her saying, "So, you know folks who can raise a kid up to be awesome, right?"

Helena whirled and shot before she could even process that she recognized the voice, her instincts just screaming that someone had snuck up on her in a blind alley and couldn't mean anything good by it. By the time her mind caught up enough to realize who it was behind her, dangling upside-down from a fire-escape as if it were a jungle gym, Helena's finger had already squeezed the trigger and her whole stomach went sour at what she'd just done.

At least until Harley jackknifed at the waist with no apparent concern, the bolt passing close enough to ruffle the ends of her pigtails before embedding harmlessly into the wall beyond her. "You see what I mean?" she said chipperly as she straightened back out, grinning brightly at Helena, "You didn't even need to _aim_ and you'd have gotten me straight in the gourd if I'd letcha, so fucking cool!"

"That's... sorry?" Helena offered awkwardly, not really sure whether an apology was required to a target so enthusiastic about almost being killed. "What did you want to know?"

"Well, ya see, it's the kid," Harley said, knees loosening to let herself drop as she spoke. She caught herself in a handstand with an easy bounce before flipping to her feet. "Or, not so much the kid as the fact that this whole city... state... tri-state area maybe? Well, the fact that there's still a heck of a lot of people out there wanting to take a shot at me." 

Helena blinked, tilting her head slightly to the side, "Montoya said she's been keeping an ear out for any funfairs being sieged and hasn't heard anything. We thought the people after you had given up now that Sionis is out of the way."

"Awww, keeping an eye out for little ol' me? I knew you guys cared! But trust me sweetie, you've got no clue just how many folks are out for my blood." Harley leaned against the wall of the alley, crossing her arms behind her head as she looked at Helena, "Now that the biggest hotheads have been taken care of I've been able to leverage The Joker to keep 'em a little more under control; Mr. J and me might've washed our hands of each other, but he's still the possessive type. Just needed to get the word in the right ears that he'd see my life as being his to take and it makes folks have another think or two about whether they wanna risk it."

"And this has something to do with Cassandra?" Helena asked, trying to follow along.

"Yeah, so, I _probably_ should have thought a little bit about the fact that I'm Gotham's most wanted by Gotham's Most Wanted before taking in a kid who doesn't know fuck all about holding her own in a fight unless she's holding a granade, 'cause she's got a target on her back as big as Wayne Tower for anyone trying to get a little sneaky about getting their hands on me. And I'm getting kinda exhausted of having to take them out without her noticing."

Helena raised an eyebrow, "Since when have you cared about letting her watch you kill people?"

"Ex _cuse_ me, after everything that kid's been through it's important for her mental state that she feels like she's secure in her new environment. How do you think she's going to feel if she knows I can only leave her alone at night because I know Bruce'll eat anyone who tries to sneak in?" She pushed herself away from the wall and sauntered up to Helena, "The kid needs some training in how to take care of herself, and the way I learned... it ain't a method I can try passing onto a brat. So I said to myself, 'Harley, who's the most badass person you know?' And then the cops started shooting at me when I tried to reach the Bat Signal, so then I thought of you."

"You. Want _me._ To teach a child how to fight?" Helena asked haltingly, trying to wrap her mind around the idea. She was pretty sure that she wasn't what anyone could consider a kid-person. The other Birds made it clear that they didn't even consider her an adult-person, insisting that her role whenever they needed to run an interrogation was to sit back, look menacing, and try not to talk until she learned to be a little better at communicating with other people again.

"No, I wanted you to put in a good word with the folks who trained you up and see if they'll take her on for a month or two! It'll be like summer camp, she gets away from home for awhile and learns some important life skills! If she comes back even a drop as awesome as you it'll be time well spent." Harley shifted to the side, draping one arm over Helena's shoulders, and said, "C'mon, think about it, we could go together and you can show me all your old stomping grounds. We can go partying while she studies the blade, it'll be a blast!"

Helena knew that she wasn't good with people. Years dedicating herself purely to training, living only for her revenge, had wiped out any mastery of social cues she'd had as a child. But as she thought about everything Harley was saying and doing an idea started to click together in her mind. Harley was being very complimentary towards her, as she had been ever since they'd first met. Harley was smiling at her a great deal, which might not actually be signaling anything in her case since it seemed to be her default facial expression, but at least Helena was pretty sure it was a friendly smile instead of a manic one. Harley was making close physical contact with her. Harley was finding an excuse to meet her family, and inviting her out to a party, though Helena wasn't sure where she thought they'd find one.

Helena studied her, quickly deciding how she felt about the conclusions she'd come to. Harley was pretty, that was for sure, and fun to be around. They fought well together. Canary and Montoya both said that it was for the best that she'd decided to take off on her own, but neither offered many concrete explanations for why; Canary insisting that she didn't want to think about the shit she'd seen in the underworld now that she was out of it, and Montoya grudgingly declaring that she wouldn't taint Harley _too_ badly in Helena's eyes until she did anything to show she was still as bad on her own as she had been while under the Joker's thumb, at which point all bets would be off.

She cared about a little girl who had nothing. Cared for her in much the same way that Helena had once been cared for by people Montoya and Canary would probably be just as quick to say it was good that she'd left behind. People Harley would give her an excuse to go home to.

"I think I understand what you're suggesting, and I think I'm okay with it," Helena told her, before turning her head in to kiss her.

Harley returned the kiss with sloppy enthusiasm, shoving Helena back against the wall even as she shoved her tongue into her mouth. Helena was glad to let her take control, she'd only been kissed twice before by kids in the village where she'd been raised before Paolo had terrified anyone her age who might be interested away from her. She could only try to keep up with the rush of Harley's hands and mouth now, try to learn the things she'd been missing out on through all the years going without regular young romances.

Finally Harley pulled away, laughing and shaking her head as she went, "Holy shit, Killer, wouldn't have taken you for the type to get all hot and bothered talking about child-rearing. Can't say this was part of my plan for tonight, but let nobody say Miss Harley Quinn looks a gift horse in its mouth!" She looped her arms around Helena's neck and leaned in to whisper to her in a tone that was half-sultry half-teasing, "Wanna debate Montessori versus Waldorf with me?"

From the teasing Helena got the feeling that maybe she'd read Harley's intentions wrong after all. But from Harley's teeth nibbling at her earlobe she was pretty sure she'd gotten it just right anyway.


End file.
